A massive power outage has left 19 million people without electricity in Chile on Tuesday.
The blackout affected the northern Arica and Parinacota region to the southern Los Lagos region, according to the Undersecretariat of the Interior.
The power failure was first reported at 3:15pm local time in several parts of the country.
The Electricity and Fuels Superintendence has estimated that 80.1 percent of customers were left in the dark.
At least 582,430 people were left without electricity in the communes around the Santiago metropolitan region, the agency reported.
It also said that 328,488 customers in Los Lagos and another 161,843 residents in Los Ríos also did not have power.
Interior Minister, Carolina Tohá, went on X to announce that an emergency meeting was scheduled with the Disaster Risk Management Committees.
“Given the power outage that is occurring between the regions of Arica and Parinacota and Los Lagos, I have called for an immediate meeting of the National #Cogrid [Disaster Risk Management Committees], where we will adopt measures to address the emergency and work on restoring the service,” she said.
The subway service in the capital Santiago, where millions of passengers are served, was shutdown by 3:20pm.
The outage also caused streets lights to stop working and buses filled with passengers as workers scrambled to search for ways to get home.
Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, was without electricity, a source close to the matter told Reuters.
Antofagasta, a copper mining group, said it was operating its mines with a backup power generator.
A man walks in a parking garage during a power outage, in Santiago, Chile on Tuesday